This month: Dennis Lock, Good News (medical breakthrough at UCL, HMS XV Patrick Blackett sails), Not So Good News (delays, overruns, travel queues, flight delays), Transport Projects, New Energy (more oil in Scotland waters, space-based energy, national grid matters, more solar, deep geothermal), New Projects (Eden thermal energy, neutron science, Concorde, Puma, electric aircraft), Dew Ponds, newts, butterflies, skylarks and shepherds.
REPORT
By Miles Shepherd
Executive Advisor & International Correspondent
Salisbury, England, UK
INTRODUCTION
We have just passed the big local celebration here in the heart of Wessex, the historic division of England with a long-recorded history and an 
even longer anecdotal one. I refer, of course, to the celebration at Stonehenge of the Solstice. This is nothing to do with project management but good fun if you are into ancient rituals invented in the dark ages around 1965. (Image: iNews/Aijaz Rahi/AP)
This is, as I have said many times before, the Silly Season here in UK. Traditionally, the social season is in full swing with College Balls up and down the country and major events such as Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships, Henley Royal Regatta and Royal Ascot to catch the attention. Interesting as these are to event managers, project managers tend to view them as poor cousins. I take a different view but will return to that theme in another edition. For now, there are plenty of items of PM interest and I want to cover some news items, a quick look at regional projects, some transport-related completed and planned projects, alternative energy developments; and some new projects before closing on a note on conservation projects that caught my eye.
Before I do all that, I want to bring to your attention the loss of another one of the “Greats” of British project management. Some of you will know Dennis Lock. You may not have had the good fortune to meet Dennis but like me, you may have some of his many books on your shelves. Dennis passed away in early May but I did not hear about this sad event until after our deadline last month and I do not want his passing to be missed by other friends and colleagues around the world.
Dennis Lock image
Dennis was well known to other PM World Correspondents and one of his latest books was The Handbook of Project Portfolio Management (2018) co-edited with Reinhard Wagner. His last work seems to have been The Practitioner Handbook of Project Controls, with Shane Forth (2021). One of the most impressive characteristics Dennis displayed was his ability to remain totally up to date in his approach to project management, he was abreast of all the most recent developments, their strengths and weaknesses. This was reflected in his best known work, Project Management which was first published in 1970 and ran to 10 editions, the tenth issued in 2013 so that it remained one of the best known handbooks on our work. He wrote 6 books, co-authored another 4; edited 6 volumes and co-edited another 5 books.
Above all, Dennis was a practitioner with a career in several sectors including defence, heavy engineering and mining, with projects ranging from the manufacture of sub-miniature electronic assemblies to giant machine-tool projects and mining engineering.
A very good tribute is available on the APM website: https://www.apm.org.uk/news/dennis-lock-honorary-fellow-apm-1929-2023/. A fine project manager, outstanding author and good friend who is much missed.
GOOD NEWS
Well, actually this is a pretty mixed selection but I will start with a successful medical project at University College London (UCL) where they have successfully tested a machine that mimics the functions of a liver, importantly removing harmful substances from the blood. Press reports of the trial claim that people dying of sudden liver failure, numbered in their thousands, could be saved every year after the UCL team created the first ever “liver dialysis” treatment. Full details of the trial are published in The Journal of Hepatology but the results of the small scale trial of 32 patients with liver disease show that the device was able to reverse acute onset liver failure in twice as many patients as those on existing treatments.
More…
To read entire report, click here
How to cite this report: Shepherd, M. (2023). Project Management Roundup from the UK, report, PM World Journal, Vol. XII, Issue VII, July. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/pmwj131-Jul2023-Shepherd-UK-project-management-round-up-report.pdf
About the Author
Miles Shepherd
Salisbury, UK
Miles Shepherd is an executive editorial advisor and international correspondent for PM World Journal in the United Kingdom. He is also managing director for MS Projects Ltd, a consulting company supporting various UK and overseas Government agencies, nuclear industry organisations and other businesses. Miles has over 30 years’ experience on a variety of projects in UK, Eastern Europe and Russia. His PM experience includes defence, major IT projects, decommissioning of nuclear reactors, nuclear security, rail and business projects for the UK Government and EU. His consulting work has taken him to Japan, Taiwan, USA and Russia. Past Chair and Fellow of the Association for Project Management (APM), Miles is also past president and chair and a Fellow of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). He was, for seven years, a Director for PMI’s Global Accreditation Centre and is immediate past Chair of the ISO committee developing new international standards for Project Management and for Program/Portfolio Management. He is currently Chairman of the British Standards Institute project management committee. He was involved in setting up APM’s team developing guidelines for project management oversight and governance. Miles is based in Salisbury, England and can be contacted at miles.shepherd@msp-ltd.co.uk.
To view other works by Miles Shepherd, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at http://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/miles-shepherd/.
